1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an internet facsimile machine capable of facsimile transmission via an internet to an addressee.
2. Description of the Related Art
In transmitting an electronic mail via an internet, data of the same information as has been transmitted is usually stored in a memory of a personal computer etc. of an addresser. On the other hand, when information to be transmitted is once sent to a relay domain such as a commercial provider using an internet facsimile machine, the information is not usually preserved or stored in the internet facsimile machine whether or not the information has actually reached an addressee. The reason for this is that the information transmitted by the internet facsimile machine is image information which generally contains a large amount of information.
Accordingly, when an transmitting operation is carried out in the internet facsimile machine with an erroneous addressee being designated, the transmitting operation including reading image information by a scanner needs to be re-carried out in order that the image information may be transmitted to a correct addressee. Thus, the re-transmitting operation is more troublesome in the internet facsimile transmission than in the electronic mail transmission via the internet. In view of the above-described troublesomeness, preventing errors in input of an address is particularly desired in the internet facsimile machine. However, in the input of an address, characters indicative of each of user identification information and the name of domain of the address are input one by one. The address input is thus troublesome and apt to cause errors.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an internet facsimile machine in which operability can be improved in input of an address and errors caused in input of an address of the addressee can be reduced.
The present invention provides an internet facsimile machine capable of facsimile transmission via an internet to an addressee, comprising identification information input means for inputting user identification information of an address of an addressee, the address including user identification information and information relating to a user, attribute presenting means for presenting the plurality of attributes of the information relating to the user so that one of the presented plurality of attributes is selected, and predetermined information input/selection means for inputting or selecting a predetermined piece of information so that information relating to a user in the address of the addressee is narrowed. Storage means is provided for storing a large amount of information about the user. Candidate presenting means is provided for presenting a candidate for information relating to the user in the address of the addressee by relating the predetermined information input or selected by the input/selection means to the information about the user stored in the storage means. Presented candidate determining means is provided for determining only one candidate when said one candidate is presented by the candidate presenting means, and for selecting and determining either or any one of two or more candidates when said two or more candidates are presented by the candidate presenting means. Transmission instruction means is provided for instruction execution of internet transmission according to an address including the user identification information input by the identification information input means and the information relating to the user determined by the presented candidate determining means.
The above-described internet facsimile machine relies on the following fact. An amount of information about the user contained in the address of the addressee (for example, the number of existing domain names) is much smaller as compared with an amount of the personal identification information (such as the ID number) contained in the address of the addressee. Accordingly, the existing domain names can previously be stored in the internet facsimile machine side so as to correspond to respective pieces of related information. An arrangement can be provided for calling a desired one of the stored domain names by an easy operation.
More specifically, the predetermined information input/selection means inputs or selects a predetermined piece of information so that information relating to a user in the address of the addressee is narrowed. The candidate presenting means presents a candidate for information relating to the user of the address of the addressee by relating the predetermined information input or selected by the input/selection means to the information about the user stored in the storage means. Presented candidate determining means determines only one candidate when said one candidate is presented by the candidate presenting means, and for selecting and determining either or any one of two or more candidates when said two or more candidates are presented by the candidate presenting means. Transmission instruction means is provided for instructing execution of internet transmission according to an address determined by the identification information input means and the presented candidate determining means. The transmission instruction means instructs the execution of internet transmission according to an address determined including, for example, characters and numerals, by the identification information input means and the presented candidate determining means. In this arrangement, the information relating to the user preferably includes a name of domain.
In a preferred form, the predetermined information input/selection means includes character/numeral input means capable of inputting characters and numerals one by one. The character/numeral input means also serves as the predetermined information input/selection means. Further, the predetermined information input or selected by the predetermined information input/selection means includes one or more characters or numerals at a predetermined location of the domain name. Additionally, the candidate presenting means presents a candidate for domain name at a location corresponding to the predetermined location where the same character or numeral as the character or numeral input or selected by the predetermined information input/selection means.
In another preferred form, the internet facsimile machine further comprises a registration key for registering a candidate for at least any one of the whole address of the addressee, personal identification information of the address, and information in the address relating to the user, registration storage means for storing the candidate registered by the registration key, calling means for calling any one of the candidates stored in the registration storage means, and called candidate determining means, when the candidates called by the calling means includes a desired one, for selecting and determining the desired candidate. In this arrangement, the transmission instruction means is preferably capable of instructing execution of transmission with respect to an address which is the candidate determined by the called candidate determining means or an address including the candidate determined by the called candidate determining means.
In further another preferred form, the internet facsimile machine further comprises inquiry means for inquiring of a domain name server on the internet about the presence of a domain name of an addressee""s address input by the operator before execution of internet facsimile transmission, inquiry transmission instruction means for instructing execution of internet facsimile transmission to the addressee""s address including the domain name when informed of presence of the domain name as the result of inquiry by the inquiry means, and notification means for notifying the operator of absence of the domain name when informed of absence of the domain name as the result of inquiry by the inquiry means.